Weeden wants sobrietor monitoring bracelet removed

A motion has been filed on behalf of Michael Weeden requesting that his sobrietor monitoring bracelet be removed.

The motion states that the former city councilor, 23, did not realize his liberties would be restricted so severely under supervision of the Strafford County Community Corrections program.

Filed by his attorney John Durkin, the motion claims Weeden “was unaware the sobrietor would involve significant restrictions on his liberties and significant expense. The restrictions on his liberties include curfew, the inability to swim, and the cost of $100 per week.”

Though the motion requests the monitor be removed, a bail condition deletion which prosecutor Alysia Cassotis has not agreed to at this time, it also promises that Weeden will abide by orders including abstaining from alcohol or drug use, have no contact with the alleged victim, and continue monitoring by SCCC by random urinalysis.

Weeden was accepted into the SCCC program May 28 after being indicted on charges alleging aggravated felonious sexual assault and criminal threatening. His $10,000 cash bail was converted into personal recognizance bail upon his acceptance into the program that same day.

Since waiving his arraignment and agreeing to monitoring and random testing by the SCCC program, Weeden has violated those orders, with notification sent to the state after two checks conducted on Wednesday, June 18.

At 9:42 p.m. that evening, his blood alcohol level registered at .053, and .047 on retest. Eighteen minutes later at 10 p.m., his levels registered at .048 and .049.

According to court documents, Weeden denied consuming alcohol and instead told authorities he had gone to dinner that evening and consumed a meal containing cooking alcohol. He stated he was also home before his 9 p.m. curfew as ordered by bail conditions.

The same document states that the SCCC program is concerned that Weeden is either unable or unwilling to refrain from alcohol use, “which increases his risk to himself and the community.”

Weeden, 23, of 365 Sixth St., is accused of pointing a firearm at a woman's head in February 2012 and threatening to kill her and himself if she did not comply with his sexual requests. The two were reportedly involved in a relationship at the time.

The indictment also alleges that sometime in March 2012, he forced himself sexually on the same victim without her consent.

The criminal threatening charges are Class A felonies with potential sentences of 10 to 20 years in state prison and fines of up to $4,000 for each charge. If convicted of the aggravated felonious sexual assault charge, Weeden also faces 10 to 20 years in state prison as well as a fine of up to $4,000.

Weeden has called the allegations “ridiculous” via a social media post.

Though the motion points out that the allegations relate to incidents that occurred more than two years ago and that Weeden has no criminal record, this is not his first interaction with law enforcement.

For Weeden, who announced his intent to run for state representative May 16, the same day Foster's Daily Democrat learned of the indictments against him, this brush with law enforcement is just the latest in his history.

In December he was involved in a fatal motor-vehicle crash on Sixth Street that killed 87-year-old Martin Carignan of Somersworth.

Weeden told investigating police that his vehicle crossed the center line as he was putting on his seat belt. His car collided with Carignan's vehicle. Carignan later died at a Massachusetts hospital.

Weeden was not charged in that incident.

A little more than a year before that crash, in October 2012, Weeden, a former UNH student and then-state representative, was mugged in Boston and wound up in the hospital.

Weeden has a dispositional conference scheduled for July 18 at Strafford County Superior Court.